Considering an alkaline diet? 4 reasons to think twice before you embrace it

Stacey Mattish

Contributing Writer

Remedy Daily

The alkaline diet became a fad in 2013 and is still making waves in the natural foods world. Home remedy sites talk about keeping your body's pH neutral and controlling it through your diet. The idea is that if your body's pH is properly balanced, many of your health problems will be taken care of.

Before jumping on any band wagon, you want to be sure to check out the facts. Do a little research. Go to those who have the training in the right fields and the resources necessary to properly interpret the information. Before starting an alkaline diet, consider these 4 reasons to take a second look.

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1. Science. Dr. Melinda Ratini from WebMD points out that the science behind the alkaline diet is simply impossible. The body is designed to balance its own pH regardless of what you eat. Your stomach, because it has to break down food, is extremely acidic. Your kidneys act as the regulating agent for the blood, adjusting the pH and keeping it neutral. Regardless of what you eat, unless you have a kidney problem, your blood will always be neutral.

2. Protein.Healthline gives a breakdown of what is considered acidic, neutral and alkaline. The items that are considered acidic are meat, fish, poultry, dairy, eggs, grains and alcohol. Unfortunately, that list knocks out the vast majority of your protein sources. The alkaline diet requires people to become vegans. As such, you can get protein out of your legumes and tofu, but you have to be very careful to eat enough of the right things so that you don't shortchange your body. Many people find this difficult.

3. Alkaline water. One of the items promoted by the diet is alkaline water. Medical News Today states that drinking water that has a higher pH doesn't come without a cost, both in money and to your body. Your stomach is supposed to have a high amount of acid to break down the food. Drinking an alkaline water disrupts the natural acidity of the stomach. Also, in the studies that were performed, no real health benefits could be traced to the water, but some side effects were seen in the lab experiments that warrants caution.

4. Weight loss. Who doesn't want to lose weight? You will probably see weight loss when changing to an alkaline diet, but you should consider the reason why. If you switch what you eat to fruits, vegetables, legumes and nuts, you will lose weight because you are eating is healthier. WebMD shares that the diet itself is healthy in that it promotes healthy foods, but you need to remember that to keep a healthy body, exercise is also important. The diet does not address this point.

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Although you may not be able to control your body's pH and heal its problems that way, you can improve your overall health by eating healthier. The best thing about the alkaline diet is its push to move away from refined, fatty foods toward healthy eating.